Do ads fail because of the wrong medium, product, price or timing? One of the above … all of the above or … none of the above…?
Our greatest gift is our attention and our greatest commodity is our time; we are just plain busy; we have a lot to do. What if the mass of advertisers vying for consumers’ attention times the velocity of targeted messages does nothing more than fatigue consumers in pure unmitigated overload? What if ads fail simply because they were ignored?
I like ads. I like ads in magazines, movie trailers and clearly some TV commercials are the pinnacle of creativity and wit. I like when a visually pleasing display ad is presented exactly when I was wondering about that topic. But for the most part, we are pummeled with advertisements at the speed of light, which in a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second.
OK, I do not have a verifiable fact that 300,000,000 ads per second are targeted to consumers via pop ups, displays, banners, video, direct mail, TV, radio, texts, phones, billboards, signage etc., but doesn’t that feel about right? With the advertising industry quarterly results down significantly again in Q2 ‘09, are you ignoring less ads? As a consumer, I do not feel a dent except in direct mail (a blessing!); I am just as fatigued with advertising overload as I was in 2007. As a business owner pushing my message to my target markets, I am just as weary.
Advertisers would like massive changes as well: ‘Annoy me and detain me from my online quest’ is not the brand awareness experience advertisers’ desire for their prospects. Businesses live everyday what Harvard and Stanford recently reported: advertising extends brand awareness but does not address perceived quality.
Businesses can’t break through the noise of too many advertisers saying the same thing: years experience, great service, etc. (true or not). Reputable businesses are frustrated because they are just another card in the mail, ad in the paper, radio spot, internet search or yellow page listing. There’s no ad police, anyone can say anything and does. Newspapers seek what every business owner seeks: consistent growing revenue base, competitive advantages, happy customers who see results and repeat business.
For millions of businesses quality breaks them away from the pack allowing them to differentiate their products and services. Millions of businesses paid for advertising to generate qualified leads, not just brand awareness, and expectations were simply not met. When the economy dropped they could no longer justify the investment and so began the fallout.
Advertising is broken.